7 April 2014

The story of Theo James

The story of Theo James born at 36 weeks

As told by Theo's mum, Jeska..

"This being our (mine and my husbands) 7th pregnancy and 4th baby, we expected it to be reasonably smooth sailing.  Unfortunately at 19 weeks we found out our little baby had dropped off in growth by more than 2.5weeks.  We were sent straight to a specialist in Brisbane, who confirmed our baby had IUGR (1). This came as a huge shock as our other 3 children were all over 8 pound!!! So from that point during the pregnancy we had weekly scans, weekly dr appointments and trips to the Brisbane specialist every 3-4 weeks.  The last 3 weeks before our little man was born, I had to have daily and then second daily CTG's to monitor bubs heart rate.  

At 34 weeks I was given steroid injections for bubs lungs and at 36 weeks I was induced as the doctors (and myself and husband) felt it was safest to get bub out.

The balloon induction begun at 3.30pm. By 6pm my hind waters broke. By midnight contractions had started. 3-5 minutes apart, I was taken to labour ward where the doctor had told me I was only 1 cm and baby was still high. After about 3 hours the contractions had stopped, so they started the sintocin drip which brought in contractions quite quickly. With only gas and about 10hours of labour I thought I was coping very well. I felt the pain in my hips and the pressure down below, I thought "this is it!". I told my husband "I think baby's coming!". So the doctor examined me only to tell me he wasn't. I was so disheartened and I couldn't understand why this labour was taking so much longer than my others. I decided to pull myself together and just get through this, but by this time the sintocin had been turned right up, and my tummy went into hyper-tension. I wasn't getting any break between contractions and I was exhausted. The doctor highly recommended an epidural for baby's sake and for mine. So reluctantly I agreed. 

Once having the epidural I felt relaxed and ready to carry on. Within 10 minutes of the epidural being in, babys heart rate started dropping, and the doctor and midwives came from everywhere. They were doing fetal scalp testing on our baby, as well as stretching my cervix. Within minutes of stretching my cervix, I felt "that" pressure. His head was there and with a little vacuum help he was out. He was whisked off by doctors immediately. It was a bitter sweet moment having given birth to our 4th baby, a beautiful and tiny little boy, yet his condition unknown. 

About an hour after he was born my husband and I were able to visit our little man, Theo James, in the special care nursery. He was so beautiful. He looked exactly like our other children, only half their size at birth. His first night in SCN he needed the bubble c-pap (2) to help with his breathing, also IV drip for fluids and antibiotics. 

The next morning we visited our beautiful man who weighed 2025 grams born. He was off the c-pap and on general monitoring in his humidity crib.

During his first week he got jaundice (which we expected would happen) and the levels jumped up and went down 3 times. Now at day 10 he is doing amazing. Better than any of us could have expected. He was 36+1 born but also lacked in growth by over 3 weeks. At day 2 he had lost more than 10% of his body weight and dropped to 1830 grams, today he is 1920 grams with alternate feeds (tube and suck).

He amazes us every single day, and we are so proud and so relived at his progress already in these early days."

(1) Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) refers to poor growth of a baby while in the mother's womb during pregnancy. The causes can be many, but most often involve poor maternal nutrition or lack of adequate oxygen supply to the fetus.

(2) Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the use of continuous positive pressure to maintain a continuous level of positive airway pressure in a spontaneously breathing patient. It is functionally similar to positive end-expiratory pressure, except that PEEP is an applied pressure against exhalation and CPAP is a pressure applied by a constant flow. The ventilator does not cycle during CPAP, no additional pressure above the level of CPAP is provided, and patients must initiate all of their breaths. Nasal CPAP is frequently used in neonates, though its use is controversial. Studies have shown nasal CPAP reduces ventilator time but an increased occurrence of pneumothorax was also prevalent.
As a treatment or therapy, CPAP uses mild air pressure to keep an airway open. CPAP typically is used for people who have breathing problems, such as sleep apnea.
CPAP also may be used to treat preterm infants whose lungs have not yet fully developed. For example, physicians may use CPAP in infants with respiratory distress syndrome. It is associated with a decrease in the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. In some preterm infants whose lungs haven't fully developed, CPAP improves survival and decreases the need for steroid treatment for their lungs.
(3) Jaundice (also known as icterus, from the Greek word ίκτερος; adjectival form, icteric) is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclerae (whites of the eyes), and other mucous membranes caused byhyperbilirubinemia (increased levels of bilirubin in the blood).  This hyperbilirubinemia subsequently causes increased levels of bilirubin in the extracellular fluid. Concentration of bilirubin in blood plasma is normally below 1.2 mg/dL(<25µmol/L). A concentration higher than 2.5 mg/dL (>50µmol/L) leads to jaundice. The term jaundice comes from the French word jaune, meaning yellow.
Thank you to Jeska and her family for sharing Theo's story with us.  He is adorable and we can not wait to see him grow.  We wish you all the best for the rest of Theo's special care journey.
The Dream A Little Dream Team

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